0:00:03 > 0:00:06As a psychologist, I'm fascinated by how the brain develops
0:00:06 > 0:00:09when children grow from babies into adults,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13and why sometimes things don't follow the typical pattern -
0:00:13 > 0:00:15when they lack the usual social skills,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17when they struggle with learning,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and when their anxieties mean
0:00:20 > 0:00:24they can't deal with the daily pressures of the world around them.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Over the last 50 years, neuroscience has begun to unlock
0:00:31 > 0:00:34a new understanding of how the brain works,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38and what happens when it develops differently.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42Sometimes I'm quite angry for myself cos I'm not doing this properly.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46And I got to the stage where I thought, "I'm not going to have this
0:00:46 > 0:00:50"because this is actually ruining my relationship with my daughter."
0:00:50 > 0:00:54In this film, I want to explore how growing children are affected by
0:00:54 > 0:00:56the common learning disability dyslexia
0:00:56 > 0:01:00through the eyes of the children and families affected by it.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03It's always been my difficu... difficulty.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08'Words that I'm not really familiar with, like things that don't normally come up every day.'
0:01:08 > 0:01:12And it seems that the brain of someone with dyslexia has more difficulty
0:01:12 > 0:01:15with that change in sound intensity.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19I want to find out why it is the brains of dyslexic people
0:01:19 > 0:01:21process information so differently.
0:01:21 > 0:01:27So for her to do an exam and try and get it all down is a real struggle.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30You have to face the world in a different way.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46We live in a world of words.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Almost everything we do involves reading.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51Instructions,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53computers, phones,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55newspapers.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59It's a skill that is fundamental to functioning properly in today's society.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04And with the internet, it has become ever more crucial.
0:02:05 > 0:02:11It has now been estimated that we see or hear over 100,000 words every day.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23"It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26"They must have action and they will make it if they cannot find it.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29"Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32"and millions are in silent revolt against their lot."
0:02:32 > 0:02:35At this moment, my brain and yours
0:02:35 > 0:02:39are performing an amazing feat to understand these black marks.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Light photons are bouncing off the page
0:02:42 > 0:02:45and hitting a thin area of flesh at the back of our eyeballs.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48Then the information is fed into our brains,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51where those black marks suddenly take on meaning.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57I think it's hard to quantify how important reading's been in my life
0:02:57 > 0:03:01that it's opened this window of opportunity to expand my mind
0:03:01 > 0:03:04and to help me to learn things about
0:03:04 > 0:03:06the subject areas that have interested me,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10but also in every aspect of my life, it's been at the heart of it
0:03:10 > 0:03:14because if there's been something I've wanted to find out, reading has been the key.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21But for as many as one in ten of us,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23reading is not a joy but a daily ordeal.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30What if I picked a book that wasn't your favourite?
0:03:30 > 0:03:35- I might be able to read it, I don't know.- Shall we have a go?- OK.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38'Lettie Gillespie is ten years old.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42'Ever since she began at school, she has struggled with her reading.'
0:03:42 > 0:03:44Oh, gosh, you look very worried.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Yes, I can't... I'm not very good reading these.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51'At her age, Lettie would typically be expected to be almost fluent
0:03:51 > 0:03:54'in her reading, but she suffers from dyslexia,
0:03:54 > 0:03:58'a learning disability that affects the way she reads, writes and spells.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00'It's got nothing to do with intelligence
0:04:00 > 0:04:04'and can affect people from any sort of background.'
0:04:05 > 0:04:07Bank...
0:04:07 > 0:04:08- BOTH:- Back...
0:04:08 > 0:04:11for the winter term.
0:04:11 > 0:04:12Well done.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15At, ats...
0:04:15 > 0:04:18St Clare's had stowed...
0:04:18 > 0:04:21- BOTH:- ..stood.
0:04:21 > 0:04:22Stood...
0:04:23 > 0:04:25t... tw...
0:04:27 > 0:04:30- Silent...- Silent...
0:04:30 > 0:04:32and...
0:04:33 > 0:04:36- ..empty...- Empty du...
0:04:38 > 0:04:40During...
0:04:40 > 0:04:42I think it was reception
0:04:42 > 0:04:44they started saying that she was a bit slower.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47But she's an August birthday so, of course,
0:04:47 > 0:04:48you'd expect that anyway
0:04:48 > 0:04:51cos she was a year younger than some of them in her year.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55And she was talking normally, very bright and bubbly,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59and I don't know when it was really, about year two I think,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03they started saying there could be some problem, she's a bit slow.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07So before that, all of her developmental milestones were fine?
0:05:07 > 0:05:11- Everything was fine. - What was her interest like in books?
0:05:11 > 0:05:15She always loved stories, but she wouldn't ever read them.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19She learnt the letter sounds, probably quite slowly.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23Obviously she's reversing a lot of her letters when she's writing.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25It took a while. And, you know,
0:05:25 > 0:05:31she'll confuse capital letters with small letters, Z and S,
0:05:31 > 0:05:33a lot of things appear backwards.
0:05:34 > 0:05:39I mean, even yesterday you said that you spelt "dog" and you did it G-O-D.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42I think that's quite a classic one, isn't it?
0:05:44 > 0:05:48When dyslexia is combined with that crucial period of children's lives
0:05:48 > 0:05:52when they are first starting to learn, it can be disastrous
0:05:52 > 0:05:56because the way we learn is so dependent on reading and writing.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Without the right help, dyslexic children can suffer from
0:06:00 > 0:06:04poor self-esteem, high stress and low achievement.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09It's bad enough getting children to do homework normally,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13but with Lettie it's a question of sort of standing behind her,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17spelling out every single word, telling her where to put the gaps,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20and then telling her, "No, I said B, not D.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24"I've written them down here for you. Why aren't you looking?"
0:06:24 > 0:06:28And it just becomes a really sort of volatile, stressful situation.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31And quite a breakdown in confidence levels as well?
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Yes. And I got to the stage where I thought, "I'm not going to have this
0:06:35 > 0:06:39"because this is actually ruining my relationship with my daughter."
0:06:39 > 0:06:42It's just soul-destroying, the whole thing is such hard work.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45It affects your self-esteem, doesn't it,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and she's just getting to an age now when she's realising
0:06:48 > 0:06:50she's not able to do things the other children can do.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54And it's quite hard for her.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59- So that unfortunately can lead to frustration?- Yeah.- Yeah.
0:07:01 > 0:07:02- Yeah.- You agree?
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Do I ever get cross with you, Lettie, when you're doing your homework?
0:07:06 > 0:07:09- No.- Oh, that's nice of you.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12- I try not to, don't I?- Yeah.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14But sometimes you have to sort of walk out the room
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and count to ten and then come back in.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22If you had to make a list of what it feels like to be dyslexic,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24what would you say?
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Um, I don't know. It'll be a huge list.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Can you give me three things?
0:07:30 > 0:07:37- Well, you get worried very easily and there's a lot of pressure.- Mm-hm.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43And everyone sees and thinks so much easier than you.
0:07:43 > 0:07:44- That's how it feels?- Mm.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46And what about your reading,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49because we've talked about the writing and the spelling,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52what happens when you read, what do you feel happens?
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Well, when I'm really concentrating, it just gets all blurry
0:07:56 > 0:08:00and makes two of them, and it doesn't make sense to me at all.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04And I just, like, can't read it,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and when I do... and when that doesn't happen,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10I'm just like, "I don't understand this one bit."
0:08:13 > 0:08:18To help me to begin to understand what effect dyslexia might have on children like Lettie,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21I have been given a series of passages from my favourite book,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Jane Eyre, that have been made deliberately difficult to read.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32"Who blames me? Many, no doubt, and I shall be called discontented.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38"I could...not help...
0:08:43 > 0:08:45"I could not help it.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49"The...restlessness was in my nature."
0:08:49 > 0:08:54Some dyslexics like Lettie describe a variety of different symptoms
0:08:54 > 0:08:56that occur when they pick up a book.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Some say they see blurry words or double words.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02For others, the letters are transposed
0:09:02 > 0:09:07or the words can appear to move on the page so that sentences don't make sense.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12Something is happening in their brains that makes reading so difficult.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16"For suffer, though rigid restraint...
0:09:16 > 0:09:20"absolute...stagnation,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22"precisely to...
0:09:22 > 0:09:25"Men would too suffer."
0:09:25 > 0:09:27It feels quite important to say that
0:09:27 > 0:09:31I can't really know what it feels like to be dyslexic,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36but having been given the opportunity to see what it might be like,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40I actually felt as if I was having to work really, really hard.
0:09:40 > 0:09:46So I imagine that - and I can only imagine it - people who do have dyslexia
0:09:46 > 0:09:49really have to find something from deep within themselves
0:09:49 > 0:09:53to persevere in order that they can experience the pleasure of reading,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56that they can feel that books, print offer them
0:09:56 > 0:10:00an opportunity to expand their world, their knowledge.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02Before I became a child psychologist,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05I was a teacher in a London primary school.
0:10:07 > 0:10:08CHILDREN TALK OVER EACH OTHER
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Tidying and tidy. Well done.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15'My favourite time was always the beginning of the school year
0:10:15 > 0:10:19'when the new intake of children first began to read and write.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22'It was always a rather magical process,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25'in that one minute they appeared to be struggling,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27'and the next they had got it.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31'It has always been a process that has mystified me.'
0:10:31 > 0:10:36If you swap the I for the Y, it would say..."tidding".
0:10:36 > 0:10:39So what do you think you have to do?
0:10:39 > 0:10:43- Add the Y.- I think you have to add the Y, don't you?- Yeah.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47'The generally accepted way children are now taught to read
0:10:47 > 0:10:49'in the UK involves phonics.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53'One method teaches children how to connect the sounds of spoken English
0:10:53 > 0:10:57'with letters or groups of letters and encourages them
0:10:57 > 0:11:00'to blend these letter sounds together to produce
0:11:00 > 0:11:04'approximate pronunciations of words they don't know.'
0:11:04 > 0:11:08So hands up if you think the first word says "hopping". OK, hands down.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Hands up if you think the second word says "hopping".
0:11:12 > 0:11:13All right. Interesting.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Well, this top word does say "hopping".
0:11:16 > 0:11:20The sound of our vowel that has changed, hasn't it?
0:11:20 > 0:11:24We've gone from hopping - "o", a short vowel sound -
0:11:24 > 0:11:28to "oh" - "hoping", a long vowel sound.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Jenny I was in your lesson this morning, which was great, cos in some ways it covered
0:11:32 > 0:11:36a whole spectrum of the whole issues that I'm thinking about.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38What are your thoughts about learning to read?
0:11:38 > 0:11:43Well, initially we need to get children enjoying reading,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46we need children to understand that reading is a pleasurable activity,
0:11:46 > 0:11:50because if they're not associating reading with pleasure
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and enjoyment, they're never necessarily going to want
0:11:53 > 0:11:55to pick a book up and start reading.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Once they realise that it's a fun activity,
0:11:58 > 0:12:00that's when, as they join school,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02that you want to be teaching them that
0:12:02 > 0:12:05different letters stand for different sounds
0:12:05 > 0:12:07and groups of letters stand for sounds as well,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10and then blending them together to actually make words.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14There's something else that had to happen in this word
0:12:14 > 0:12:17to stop it just from saying "hoping".
0:12:17 > 0:12:20We had to double the consonant, didn't we?
0:12:20 > 0:12:22Ah, interesting.
0:12:22 > 0:12:28And then one of these words says "hopped" and one doesn't.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31What's interesting is that those letter sounds,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34you suddenly have to be able to transpose those into print.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Well, some children do struggle with it more than others,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42so we do get children entering the junior school who normally know that
0:12:42 > 0:12:47"ay" can be "a", so can sound out the letters individually,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51but as you said, it's when those letters come together to make words
0:12:51 > 0:12:54that we really have to make it very visual for them,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57so using pictures to go with the different sounds.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Sometimes we'll put actions with the sounds as well.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Reading is the key. It's the key to them understanding
0:13:03 > 0:13:07work in history, in geography, and all of those other subjects.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11We want children to be leaving at the end of year six being able to cope
0:13:11 > 0:13:15with any reading they'll need to do in any subject in secondary school.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22In order to gain an insight into what happens in our brains
0:13:22 > 0:13:24when we process language,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28researchers at the University of Southampton's Centre for Visual Cognition
0:13:28 > 0:13:31are investigating what our eyes do when we are reading.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36They have agreed to demonstrate to Lettie
0:13:36 > 0:13:38how our eyes work when we read.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Still as you can, and stare right at the middle of these dots for me.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45That's great. OK, here we go.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50Simon, I wonder if you could take me through the processes that the eye goes through when it's reading.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Of course. Here we have a model of the eye,
0:13:53 > 0:13:57and what you can see is that the light will be coming from the page,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00passing through the pupil and hitting the back of the eye here.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02And at the back of the eye, in the centre here,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06there's an area called the fovea, and the cells in the fovea deliver
0:14:06 > 0:14:11high acuity detailed visual information about the words on the page to the brain.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14In the first demonstration, Lettie is asked to read
0:14:14 > 0:14:18a series of simple sentences as her eye movements are scanned.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23The computer only displays a few characters
0:14:23 > 0:14:25each side of the centre of her gaze,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29while all the remaining letters on the page are replaced with Xs.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33OK, so the one that you just did,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35it's called the moving window paradigm.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Now, what we could probably see more easily than you,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40cos you were the one who was doing it,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42was that most of the sentence was just Xs.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45We replaced most of the letters with Xs, yeah?
0:14:45 > 0:14:48- Did you get a bit of a sense of that?- No.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51No? So when people are doing it, you often don't really notice,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55and it's because when you're reading your brain is really, really clever.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59So your brain is working out a lot about the word you're looking at.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And it can also start to get some information about
0:15:02 > 0:15:05the next word in the sentence before you ever even look at it.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10This is a clever demonstration of how the eye works when it reads.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15Despite the Xs covering up some of the words,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19we believe that we can still see the whole sentence.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24Although at any moment our eyes will only ever focus on a small area of the sentence,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26they move so quickly over the page
0:15:26 > 0:15:29that we believe we see the whole sentence.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34This illusion happens so fast that we are not aware of it.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39Because the area beyond the fovea delivers less detailed information,
0:15:39 > 0:15:45this causes us to make a series of eye movements called saccades,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48as well as fixations where the eye pauses and is still.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52The saccades and fixations are the things that we actually see
0:15:52 > 0:15:56when we record people's eye movements on the eye tracker.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Lettie's eyes are no different from anyone else's.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Her dyslexia doesn't impair her vision.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05So her problems with reading are not caused by her eyes
0:16:05 > 0:16:06and must lie elsewhere.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11The clue could be in how hard her brain has to work
0:16:11 > 0:16:14in processing the information from her eyes.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17So when we saw Lettie performing the task...
0:16:17 > 0:16:22I mean, I've met her before, so I know that actually this is quite a struggle for her, reading.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26That's something that we see a lot with children who have got reading difficulties.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30They will spend much more time reading the sentence and make many more fixations -
0:16:30 > 0:16:34that's the pauses when the eye is still looking at the different words -
0:16:34 > 0:16:37and then going back and reinspecting them to reread them.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42In the second demonstration, Lettie is again asked to read a series of simple sentences,
0:16:42 > 0:16:48but this time, several of the sentences contain deliberately placed non-words,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52words that may sound or look like they are real, but are not.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55It's designed to test how fast people make the connection
0:16:55 > 0:16:58between sounds and words, and their meaning.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Even with somebody like Lettie, I thought there will still be a flow,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04but, actually, it was a backward and forward movement.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07- That's right, that's right. - And the stopping, as you say.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10And you weren't quite sure what the stopping was about.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Yes. I think another thing that's important to point out
0:17:13 > 0:17:15is that the backwards and forwards movements,
0:17:15 > 0:17:17the to-ing and fro-ing that we saw Lettie making,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20we think that comes about as a consequence of the difficulty
0:17:20 > 0:17:23that Lettie's experiencing as she's reading.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27So it's not that the poor eye movements are causing the difficulties she's having,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30it's in fact the difficulty that she's experiencing
0:17:30 > 0:17:34that's actually producing these eye movements back and forwards,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36to try and re-read the text over and over.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38And so for a more typical reader,
0:17:38 > 0:17:42what would the flow have been like, would it have been similar?
0:17:42 > 0:17:46There would be far fewer periods of time where the person would reread the sentence.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Overall, they would read it much more quickly,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52and maybe they would look at most words once, maybe twice,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55not so often, particularly if the words were easy to read,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57so it would be much more fluid.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00Unlike Lettie, typical non-dyslexic readers can still read
0:18:00 > 0:18:04these non-words, even though they are meaningless.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07They can at least make that connection with the sound of the word.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12Lettie is at a mainstream primary school where
0:18:12 > 0:18:16she receives some extra help with her reading and writing.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22But for the last three and a half years she has also worked with a specialist dyslexia teacher.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24OK, now I want you to listen, please,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27cos we're doing a new sound today, OK?
0:18:27 > 0:18:29I'm going to read you a list of words,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33and can you try and tell me what letter you can hear in all of them?
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Tact. Act.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Scan. Tactic. Panic.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45This is the next clue as to what is happening differently in Lettie's brain.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48For dyslexics, it's when their brains try to make the connection
0:18:48 > 0:18:51between sounds and words that problems occur.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Cuh.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58It is, well listened, cos a lot of people tell me "a" with that one,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00so you are a genius! Good girl.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02To help her overcome this difficulty,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Rosemary is trying to get Lettie to focus on
0:19:05 > 0:19:07the sounds of each word that she reads,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11a more intensive version of the phonics system taught in my old school.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Beginning, beginning, middle, middle...
0:19:14 > 0:19:17It's what all the assessments Lettie's had recently are saying,
0:19:17 > 0:19:19because you'll see, I hope, in this next bit,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22that we're using all the different senses.
0:19:22 > 0:19:23And really, on that activity,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27really paying attention to the different sounds that letters make.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29It's really hard, isn't it?
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Lettie's dyslexia means that she can't easily make the link
0:19:32 > 0:19:35between words on the page and their sounds,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38and so can't quickly decode their meaning.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42'It's such a complicated process when you actually look at our alphabet,'
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and you transpose that into the sounds,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48and there are a number of combinations that make the same sounds.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50'It's a bit of a minefield for children.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54'It's been an area of focus for research to try to understand whether
0:19:54 > 0:19:58'there's an aspect of processing the sound from the letters in dyslexics'
0:19:58 > 0:20:01that is simply not working properly.
0:20:01 > 0:20:02It's not quite...
0:20:02 > 0:20:08It's certainly those children aren't doing it in the same way that a child who can read fluently would.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12Now, this is quite tricky in that you've got to say "cuh" is "cee".
0:20:12 > 0:20:15So you're tracking along here and catching the "cuh",
0:20:15 > 0:20:18and as you catch it, you're saying "cuh" is "cee".
0:20:18 > 0:20:22"Cuh" is "cee". "Cuh" is "cee".
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Once children have mastered phonics,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27that connection between sounds and written words
0:20:27 > 0:20:30should become faster and faster and more automatic.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33But it's a process that's hidden from sight.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38So what I want to understand is what is actually happening in the brain when we do this,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42because it's something dyslexics like Lettie really struggle with.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47At the Medical Research Council's
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54researchers are conducting an exciting new brain scan experiment.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59They are trying to mimic that process when children learn to read for the first time,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02but under laboratory conditions,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05to study how their brains process visual information.
0:21:05 > 0:21:12Matt Davis and his colleague Jo Taylor are using a state-of-the-art brain scanner
0:21:12 > 0:21:17to help identify the different neural pathways in our brains that are associated with reading.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20The start is in the eye, so light hitting the retina
0:21:20 > 0:21:23and passing through the thalamus to the very back of the brain here.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25So this is the occipital lobe.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28It's only as information gets passed forward
0:21:28 > 0:21:31through the occipital lobe, in the bottom of the brain here,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34and into the temporal lobe, that we start to see processes
0:21:34 > 0:21:37that are involved in actually recognising that word.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41That's one pathway for reading that involves recognising words as a whole and accessing the meaning.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46There's another very important pathway that goes up through the parietal lobe.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49There's also some interesting evidence that suggests that
0:21:49 > 0:21:54that might be one of the areas in which there's dysfunction in people with dyslexia.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59What this research has already shown is that there are
0:21:59 > 0:22:02at least two pathways in the brain associated with reading -
0:22:02 > 0:22:05one which is mostly associated with new words,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08and the other with words we already know.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12It's the one that deals with new words that seems to cause
0:22:12 > 0:22:15dyslexics like Lettie the most problems.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Now, most of the time when you're reading,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21actually these two pathways are not separate,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24they're working in conjunction, working in parallel.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28OK, Rachel, we need to make sure that you've got no metal on you whatsoever.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31It is not yet practical to scan young children's brains
0:22:31 > 0:22:34over the several years spent learning to read,
0:22:34 > 0:22:35so in this experiment,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38older volunteers are put into a brain scanner.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43And in order to mimic the learning process as closely as possible,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46the volunteers are taught a completely new language
0:22:46 > 0:22:49with its own alphabet, symbols and sounds.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Beth. Bem. Bez.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Fap. Fod.
0:22:54 > 0:22:55During the process,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58the volunteers are scanned to discover which areas
0:22:58 > 0:23:01of their brains work as they learn this new language.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06The goal of the experiment is to understand what happens in the brain
0:23:06 > 0:23:09when a child begins to read for the first time.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11So you're recording Rachel's brain activity.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Rachel's brain activity, and what she's saying,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17so we can kind of put those two things together,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20so when she's speaking, what's her brain activity doing?
0:23:20 > 0:23:23When she's looking at the word and listening how to read it,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25what's her brain activity doing?
0:23:25 > 0:23:28And then we can also look at, when she gets better,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30does her brain activity change?
0:23:30 > 0:23:33It's generally agreed that to become a fluent reader,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36one of the first things a child must learn
0:23:36 > 0:23:38is that letters correspond to sounds -
0:23:38 > 0:23:42the system of phonics taught at my old school.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46So to mimic that process here in the laboratory,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49the volunteer listens to each new sound
0:23:49 > 0:23:51and sees the symbol associated with it.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53Buv. Bov.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58And so they can begin to decode this new language.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03Well, it's one of the challenges in the educational neurosciences -
0:24:03 > 0:24:06how do you study processes that, in a developing child,
0:24:06 > 0:24:08last from the age of five to ten,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11when they hopefully become a fluent reader.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15And the really exciting thing with this experiment is that
0:24:15 > 0:24:18we can get a glimpse of what might be going on during
0:24:18 > 0:24:23that five-year process in the space of a relatively short experiment.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27'This research is not yet complete
0:24:27 > 0:24:32'but it hopes to de-mystify one of the greatest enigmas of childhood -
0:24:32 > 0:24:37'why it is some children can learn to read without much effort,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40'whereas for others, it's a major obstacle to their development.'
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Good!
0:24:42 > 0:24:47So far, we've learnt that dyslexia can seriously limit a child's ability to learn.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51'Unchecked, it can lead to a severe loss of self-esteem,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54'high stress and low achievement.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58'We have also learnt it is not a problem with the way the eye works,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01'but more a difficulty with processing language and, in particular,
0:25:01 > 0:25:06'how the brain makes that crucial connection between sounds and written words.'
0:25:06 > 0:25:08In order to make that connection,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11dyslexics like Lettie have to work so much harder.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15And as she grows older, Lettie's dyslexia won't go away.
0:25:15 > 0:25:20It's something she's going to have to learn to cope with for the rest of her life.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Dyslexia doesn't just affect people's ability to read,
0:25:26 > 0:25:31it can impact their life choices, too.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Alyce Browne was diagnosed with dyslexia at age seven.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40She is now 16 and has just done her GCSEs.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42I want to start with results.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45So do you want to tell us how you did?
0:25:45 > 0:25:47I got an A in maths,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50a B in geography and four Cs,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54and then I've also got my distinction in childcare level one.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58- So, happy people today? - Very.- Very happy girl.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Yeah, yeah. She's worked really hard.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05- And even more so because Alyce has dyslexia.- Yeah, yeah.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07So this is a huge achievement for her.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12Alyce is at a crucial point in her life.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15In two years, she will leave full-time education
0:26:15 > 0:26:17and join the working world.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Her greatest anxiety is to what extent her dyslexia might hold her back.
0:26:24 > 0:26:30She knows that any job she might get will involve a lot of reading and writing.
0:26:30 > 0:26:31Reading, it's quite slow.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34I used to... Everybody used to read a chapter,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36within reading time at school and stuff,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38and I only used to read a page.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42And, also, if there's lots of noises around me,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44I can't concentrate,
0:26:44 > 0:26:48cos I'll just pick up what they're talking about and stuff,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51instead of actually physically reading,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54because I find it so hard to read.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57So if you had to write a bit of a menu
0:26:57 > 0:27:00of the sorts of issues that are tricky for you,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03what would you say is the main thing?
0:27:03 > 0:27:04The sort of the top of the list that,
0:27:04 > 0:27:09"Oh, my goodness, if that comes up, I'm going to have to get myself in a good space?"
0:27:09 > 0:27:11- Spelling.- Spelling.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14It's always been my difficu... difficulty,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18especially...not really little words now,
0:27:18 > 0:27:20words that I'm not really familiar with,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24like things that don't normally come up every day,
0:27:24 > 0:27:26or really long words I struggle with.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29So have you got a strategy for how you manage that now?
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Not really. I just try, I still try and sound it out,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36if I don't know the word, or I'll ask somebody.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40But I just, normally, if it's wrong, I just accept that it's wrong,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42but it looks something like it,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45so somebody will spot that I mean something else.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49It just means that you sort of, you know,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53worry that she's sort of putting so much effort into everything,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56and that the complications of the dyslexia don't allow her
0:27:56 > 0:27:58to express what she's learnt,
0:27:58 > 0:28:02and she's not able to put it down on paper, because it all gets jumbled up,
0:28:02 > 0:28:07so for her to do an exam and try and put that down, and get it all down
0:28:07 > 0:28:10is a really, really real struggle.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13- It's a bit of a battle. - It is, yeah.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16One teacher never used to spell for me.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18He used to put "SP" meaning spelling.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22But I never... He used to always say, "Use a dictionary."
0:28:22 > 0:28:25I didn't know how to use a dictionary,
0:28:25 > 0:28:27cos if you don't know how to spell,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30it's really hard to use a dictionary.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32So that's when I started to struggle.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35- How would you feel if I asked you to read?- Erm...
0:28:39 > 0:28:43- Nervous?- Yeah.- Yeah?- Yeah.- OK.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Will you give it a go maybe?
0:28:47 > 0:28:48If it was a more simpler book.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52If it a was more simpler book? But you're reading this book, aren't you?
0:28:52 > 0:28:56I know, but I sometimes get the words wrong and it's embarrassing.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02With her GCSE results, Alyce has now moved on to college,
0:29:02 > 0:29:07where she is hoping to get the right qualifications for a career in childcare.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11As it has been several years since she has had a full assessment,
0:29:11 > 0:29:16the college authorities need to check the severity of her dyslexia
0:29:16 > 0:29:21so that they can decide what extra help she might need in any written examinations.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23They have agreed I can sit in on the process.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28So, today, what we're going to be doing is some assessment to see
0:29:28 > 0:29:30what exam arrangements
0:29:30 > 0:29:32you might be entitled to in your functional skills,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36English or any other exams you'll be doing while you're at college.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39- We've talked about that bit before, haven't we?- Mm-hm.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42So can I just check some details you gave me when you started,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45- that when you did your GCSEs you had a reader?- Yeah.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50- And you had 25% extra time, didn't you?- Yeah.- OK.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54In a moment I want you to look at each of these words carefully,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58and I want you to read the words across the page so that I can hear you.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00When you finish the first line...
0:30:00 > 0:30:03'These tests are deliberately designed to put Alyce's ability
0:30:03 > 0:30:06'to read, write and spell under some pressure,
0:30:06 > 0:30:11'to place her in a position where she can't rely on her usual coping strategies,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14'and so reveal the extent of her dyslexia.'
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Cat. In. Book. Tree. How.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20Animal. Hair.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Spell. Even. Size.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Finger. Felt. Laugh.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31'The first thing she did was from the wide range achievements test and was a test'
0:30:31 > 0:30:34of single-word reading, and it wasn't timed,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37so it's looking at reading accuracy.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41And she had to read a series of items of increasing difficulty.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44And they did get quite difficult, didn't they?
0:30:44 > 0:30:47They do quite rapidly become quite difficult, yes.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54Dyslexia is not just something that affects children when they're learning to read.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56It's a lifelong incurable condition,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00and it can affect other aspects of a person's life, too.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02From a very early age, I used to get
0:31:02 > 0:31:04very frustrated with Alyce
0:31:04 > 0:31:08because we would go through a page of a very simple book
0:31:08 > 0:31:13and we'd turn over the page, and she wouldn't remember the cat, the dog,
0:31:13 > 0:31:19which was very evident with the older boy, who hasn't got dyslexia,
0:31:19 > 0:31:21and it sort of stemmed from there, really,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23and that was as early as three, maybe.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28Particularly a bit later on when she got into years one and two,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31when she started to be able - should have been able to know -
0:31:31 > 0:31:34very small words, you know, "in", "on", "at",
0:31:34 > 0:31:39all the things that were starting to build up your reading skills,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41she was still struggling with.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45So in a moment, you're going to have two minutes to think about the topic.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48The topic you're going to write about for me is My Perfect Day.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52I'm then going to give you 20 minutes to write about that topic.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54Your time starts now.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00Compared to non-dyslexics,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04the brains of children with dyslexia have to work so much harder when they process language,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06when they read and write.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11And other areas of their daily lives can be affected, too.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13They often have bad short-term memory,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17a difficulty with time keeping and poor organisational skills.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22What would you say are the primary things that she really struggles with?
0:32:22 > 0:32:25That you think, "OK, I know she'll struggle with that."
0:32:25 > 0:32:28We'd all be talking about various things, and Alyce will get
0:32:28 > 0:32:31the conversation completely mixed up to what we actually mean sometimes.
0:32:31 > 0:32:36And I think it's important to note that we all laugh and joke about the situation,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38and she laughs along with us, you know,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41and we all stop and say, "Can you go through that again?"
0:32:41 > 0:32:46Stop writing now when you've finished that sentence. Your 20 minutes is up.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52I do have to think about it a lot more than most people would,
0:32:52 > 0:32:58and then I have to make sure that they're right words...
0:32:58 > 0:33:04cos sometimes I say the wrong word, meaning another word.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09- Do you want to try the next one? - Yeah.
0:33:09 > 0:33:10Alcove.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Tranquality?
0:33:16 > 0:33:22She found it very difficult to attempt to decode
0:33:22 > 0:33:25sort of unknown words at all,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28and she was a couple of times, quite early on for example,
0:33:28 > 0:33:33"bulk" she read as "buck", and "knowledge she read as "unknown",
0:33:33 > 0:33:35and "horizon" as "horizontal".
0:33:35 > 0:33:40She was making a guess based on the sort of picture of the word
0:33:40 > 0:33:43that maybe she had, or the shape of the word, I should say.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46I mean, did you feel she was interested in learning?
0:33:46 > 0:33:53She definitely didn't seem to portray any difficulties with her friends in the classroom,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55and she seemed to enjoy going to school,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59and difficulties came then when she got a little bit older,
0:33:59 > 0:34:03when she wouldn't be able to write down the homework that was set from the board,
0:34:03 > 0:34:08because she couldn't understand it quick enough to write it down,
0:34:08 > 0:34:10so we got the tears and the frustration.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Municipal - do you just want to tell me a little bit about what you are doing
0:34:18 > 0:34:21in terms of trying to decode that, trying to read that?
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Break it up, so "mun"...
0:34:27 > 0:34:29.."icipal".
0:34:29 > 0:34:33The words are obviously getting much, much harder now,
0:34:33 > 0:34:38so I just want you to have a look down the next few
0:34:38 > 0:34:40and see if you are able to read them.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43If you're not, that's fine, and we can stop the test now.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48- Do we stop there?- Yeah. - OK, well done.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52- 'You had as much information as you needed at that point? - Yeah, absolutely.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56'And what I did, therefore, was I stopped the test.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00'The test was discontinued before the discontinue criteria,
0:35:00 > 0:35:02'because I could tell she was becoming very uncomfortable.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05'There was no point in prolonging that process for her.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07'Your sheet gives some clues as to'
0:35:07 > 0:35:09- how you might decode a word.- Mm-hm.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12And, as you say, at some points, Alyce didn't seem to have
0:35:12 > 0:35:14the skills or the strategies to do that.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16She wasn't able to at all.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19She didn't seem to be able to attempt to do that.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24So those decoding skills she finds very difficult,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28which is going to mean every time she comes up against new vocabulary on her course,
0:35:28 > 0:35:32she's going to find that hard, independently,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35to know what that means, or how to pronounce it.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Although she tries to break words down into their sounds
0:35:38 > 0:35:40and then blend them together,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44she doesn't necessarily have the phonological awareness skills,
0:35:44 > 0:35:48the phonological processing skills to be able to do that effectively.
0:35:48 > 0:35:54And that was actually something that came out of the two previous assessments she'd had done.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58- So she's going to struggle?- Yeah.
0:36:00 > 0:36:05A new theory for Alyce's inability to easily distinguish between different word sounds
0:36:05 > 0:36:10is now being investigated at the Centre for Neuroscience in Education in Cambridge.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Professor Usha Goswami is engaged in some ground-breaking research
0:36:15 > 0:36:18into how the brain processes sound
0:36:18 > 0:36:22and why this may be different for people who have dyslexia.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24Just pop your headphones on.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27She agreed to run some of her tests on Alyce and me,
0:36:27 > 0:36:29and compare the results.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33The first one measures how much time
0:36:33 > 0:36:36Alyce takes to spot certain rhythmic sounds.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41Well, we know that children with dyslexia have problems
0:36:41 > 0:36:44when they're listening to spoken language,
0:36:44 > 0:36:47and what we're interested in is why those problems are occurring.
0:36:47 > 0:36:48It's not that they can't hear,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52it's probably more similar to something like being colour-blind.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54So we know that when you're colour-blind,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57you can still see the visual world, you can see objects in the world,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01but there'll be certain distinctions like, for example, red versus green,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03that your brain isn't making very well.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06And we're finding it's the same in the dyslexic brain
0:37:06 > 0:37:09for listening to speech, because speech is a very complex signal
0:37:09 > 0:37:13and there are many different frequency bands in that signal.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16In fact, speech itself is a sound pressure wave,
0:37:16 > 0:37:21so what comes to your ear is initially a sound pressure alternating as you speak syllables.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24And it seems that the brain of someone with dyslexia
0:37:24 > 0:37:27has more difficulty with that initial change in sound intensity,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30as one syllable after another is produced,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33which translates in the brain into a problem with speech rhythm.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37This is an extraordinary theory, as it appears to challenge
0:37:37 > 0:37:40the popular perception that dyslexia is all to do with words,
0:37:40 > 0:37:44whereas, in fact, it's a difficulty with distinguishing
0:37:44 > 0:37:48between different rhythmic sounds that appears to be the real problem.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51- How was that?- It was a lot harder. - You did really well.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55What we know is that as you learn to read, your brain basically
0:37:55 > 0:37:59remaps the sound system of English to reflect letter categories.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04So I'll say a word to you like "tomato" and you feel intuitively that you're hearing
0:38:04 > 0:38:08a "tuh", "o", "mm", "ah", "tuh", "oh" sequence of sounds,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12but actually when you're a baby, or before you learn to read,
0:38:12 > 0:38:14your brain was hearing "mm-MM-mm",
0:38:14 > 0:38:17a sort of weak-strong-weak syllable stress pattern,
0:38:17 > 0:38:21which is what we're finding that the dyslexic brain can't hear very well.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25So it means that the whole way speech representations are laid down in the brain
0:38:25 > 0:38:28is actually different, subtly different, but still different,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30for a child with dyslexia.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34'Usha has discovered that the way we naturally speak to our babies
0:38:34 > 0:38:37'when they are very small - baby language - may in fact
0:38:37 > 0:38:41'be a very clever tool that has evolved to help babies learn.'
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Remind me of the instructions again.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46OK, so you're going to hear three different sounds...
0:38:46 > 0:38:49There are two things, cos we can't help speaking to babies in a special way
0:38:49 > 0:38:54that exaggerates rhythm, because if you were a baby, I wouldn't just say to you
0:38:54 > 0:38:56"Here's a cat." I'd say something like...
0:38:56 > 0:38:58IN CHILDLIKE VOICE: "Here's a cat."
0:38:58 > 0:39:01I'd be really emphasising these rhythmic aspects of the signal.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04That's probably a language learning support system.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08'According to Usha, the problem for children with dyslexia is that they
0:39:08 > 0:39:12'don't fully benefit from this early language support system
0:39:12 > 0:39:16'because of the difficulties their brains have with distinguishing rhythm.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21'And it's only when they begin to learn to read and write that these problems become apparent.'
0:39:21 > 0:39:25With print, of course, we're not mapping any of that intensity change
0:39:25 > 0:39:27in how we write down words.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30Languages like Greek will mark syllable stress, but English doesn't,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33and so it means that when the child is reading,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35these cues aren't even there.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39So because dyslexic children don't make that automatic link
0:39:39 > 0:39:42between sounds and letters, reading can become very difficult.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47They're having to go from a sort of brain representation
0:39:47 > 0:39:51that isn't the same as everyone else's, to a print representation
0:39:51 > 0:39:54that doesn't match in any neat way to the syllable level.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56- So, really hard work?- Mm-hm.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02Excellent. Well done.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05They all started to sound the same towards the end.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08I was thinking, "My goodness, I don't know how you did it!"
0:40:08 > 0:40:13Well, we can see quite a big difference in your threshold compared to Alyce's threshold.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16You can probably hear a difference of around 30, 40 milliseconds
0:40:16 > 0:40:20- between the rapidity of the sound beginning.- Right.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Whereas when we looked at Alyce's number, it was 31.8.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27That threshold would translate into about 200 milliseconds,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30so, for the brain, that's quite a long time difference
0:40:30 > 0:40:33from the 30 or 40 milliseconds for Laverne.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36So that means that because of her dyslexia,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Alyce needs a cue that is six times as long as me
0:40:39 > 0:40:42to recognise a rhythmic sound, such as a syllable.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45Usha's latest research is also beginning to uncover how
0:40:45 > 0:40:49the brains of dyslexics might compensate for this problem.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53The experiment varies what Alyce sees and hears to measure how much
0:40:53 > 0:40:58visual and auditory information her brain needs to understand sounds.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01And sometimes she won't be able to hear the "bah",
0:41:01 > 0:41:03she'll just be using the lip cues.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08We actually expect children with dyslexia to be better in that condition than other children.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13Other times, she might have a blank screen and she'll just be hearing the "bah", "bah".
0:41:13 > 0:41:17That's where we think children with dyslexia might have more problems.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Then this would be the natural speech condition, where children with dyslexia should do OK,
0:41:21 > 0:41:25because they've got the visual cues supporting the auditory cues.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27Usha Goswami's research has already shown that it is
0:41:27 > 0:41:31the sounds of words that dyslexics like Alyce really struggle with.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36Her latest results indicate that they seem to cope best when they
0:41:36 > 0:41:40can see, or lip-read, the words as they are made by someone's mouth.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44When you're reading, that's not true, so then you're really relying on
0:41:44 > 0:41:46the quality of these speech-based representations
0:41:46 > 0:41:49that your brain has developed because someone's telling you,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52"This is B, it's "buh", this is P, it's "puh",
0:41:52 > 0:41:54but your brain may not hear it quite like that.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56So it's very complicated.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00- It makes me think you we've got quite caught up in print...- Yeah.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03..being the indicator of dyslexia, as opposed to sound.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09In the future, Usha's research could have a profound effect on how we teach babies and young children,
0:42:09 > 0:42:13and the importance of learning rhythm in those early years of life.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16So you really need to put a lot of emphasis on building up these structures?
0:42:16 > 0:42:20We do, and I think, again, that it's so interesting that,
0:42:20 > 0:42:22as a culture, we've invented things like the nursery rhyme.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26I think it's in training, this system, from day one.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28Maybe we've forgotten the importance of that?
0:42:28 > 0:42:30Yeah, and singing, actually.
0:42:30 > 0:42:36Babies love to be sung to and they'll try and get their mothers to sing to them by being happy when they do,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39and people can feel embarrassed doing this. They think,
0:42:39 > 0:42:41"Oh, I'm tone deaf. I can't sing,"
0:42:41 > 0:42:44but you're still giving that syllable level structure to your baby
0:42:44 > 0:42:49and if you're singing, again, it's emphasised, and the rhythm is emphasised.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51For the brain, that's a very important learning.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53Alyce remains undeterred by her dyslexia.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57As part of her childcare course,
0:42:57 > 0:42:59she's doing a placement at a local pre-school
0:42:59 > 0:43:03where she's expected to read to a class of four-year-olds.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09My brother Ryan, he was always reading and he also used to put pressure on me.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11So I never stopped...
0:43:11 > 0:43:14I stopped reading for a while cos I just didn't like reading.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19It was midnight, er...night-time
0:43:19 > 0:43:22on Mel...bury Farm.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Time to, time to sleep for all the baby animals.
0:43:26 > 0:43:33The chicks were cu-cuddled up snug-snugly in the henhouse.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36'Because he was a lot better than me, he'd come up to me
0:43:36 > 0:43:38when I was reading to Mum and go,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42"Nuh-nuh-nuh, you should be reading better books and stuff."
0:43:42 > 0:43:45But now I just go, "Whatever."
0:43:45 > 0:43:50But high up in the ol... the roof of the oldest barn,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Oliver Owl wasn't sleeping.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58Oliver practise, practised his,
0:43:58 > 0:44:04practiced being quieter in the soft...the softest, of softest...
0:44:04 > 0:44:08Can you remember learning the sounds of letters and then the blends,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10do you remember that stage?
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Definitely.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Still used to do it in year nine, I think,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20and I've also, cos I've been doing childcare,
0:44:20 > 0:44:26also started to do it again with the younger kids, so it's quite amusing!
0:44:26 > 0:44:27In what way?
0:44:27 > 0:44:31'Just going back to actually how I used to do it, and I thought,
0:44:31 > 0:44:35' "Well, I've got to teach these kids how to do it as well."
0:44:35 > 0:44:36'And how does that feel?
0:44:36 > 0:44:39'A lot of them, you read to them,'
0:44:39 > 0:44:43or you spell something for them, and they go, "Oh, no, that's wrong.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46"You're meant to spell it like this or say it like this."
0:44:46 > 0:44:48I'm like, "Oh, OK." But...
0:44:49 > 0:44:51Alyce has discovered that
0:44:51 > 0:44:54one of the school's full-time assistants is also dyslexic.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58You'll have to wait until she's finished, then, sweetheart...
0:44:58 > 0:45:01'I still sometimes get nervous if it's a new book,'
0:45:01 > 0:45:05but I tend to take them home and practise at home first,
0:45:05 > 0:45:09so then it's in my head, and then I come and bring it in to work.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13And if there's a word sometimes that I get stuck on,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16then, generally, there's someone there to help prompt me.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Like you say, it usually helps to look at the pictures as well
0:45:19 > 0:45:23and, like you say, the children do enjoy the pictures,
0:45:23 > 0:45:25so it's not so pressured!
0:45:28 > 0:45:30Any childcare job Alyce is offered
0:45:30 > 0:45:34will include a number of daily written and reading tasks.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36For non-dyslexics, they would be ordinary,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38but for her, they are a real worry,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42particularly as she will have to cope with them on her own.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45How do you find writing the observations?
0:45:45 > 0:45:49I quite enjoy, actually, writing the observations.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52I usually do it in pencil first and then a colleague will help me
0:45:52 > 0:45:56with the spellings if there's a word that I find difficult to spell,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00and then I'll go through it and then put it in pen.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03- So, not too bad. - That's all right, then.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07- I think I may struggle, but I'll get through it eventually.- Yeah.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10There's quite a lot of different methods for observation.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13You've got your written, you've got your checklist,
0:46:13 > 0:46:17- and I think the checklist will be the easiest.- It is the easiest one.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19- Or Post-it notes.- Yes.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21I think that's the only way I'll be able to cope
0:46:21 > 0:46:24with getting on with this course,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27and doing placement and things like that.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32You have to face the world differently to other people,
0:46:32 > 0:46:36because you have to learn to work around things,
0:46:36 > 0:46:40but certain things you're a lot better at than others,
0:46:40 > 0:46:47like maths, for me, is a lot easier than for people that struggle and don't like it.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52Also, the doing subjects, like textiles
0:46:52 > 0:46:56and things like that, the practical side of things,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59I'm a lot better at as well.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03So you have to face the world in a different way,
0:47:03 > 0:47:07and just learn to challenge yourself,
0:47:07 > 0:47:08and get on with it.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12It's, it's hard, but you can get on with it.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17Don't, don't let it destroy you, cos you don't need it to.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27Today, new technology plays a major role in education
0:47:27 > 0:47:30and can help dyslexics, too.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Schools are full of sophisticated learning aids and computer software
0:47:34 > 0:47:37designed to make learning as easy and enjoyable as possible.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42But one piece of technology still manages to create controversy
0:47:42 > 0:47:46as to its value as an educational tool.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48If you said to a teacher
0:47:48 > 0:47:50you can go down the high street
0:47:50 > 0:47:52and for five pound or ten pound,
0:47:52 > 0:47:54you can buy a cheap piece of technology
0:47:54 > 0:47:57that every child in your class will want to use,
0:47:57 > 0:48:01and it will give them daily practice at reading and spelling,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04the teachers would be out, down the street buying it,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07and they would be willingly giving it to their children.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11But when you say it's a mobile phone, for some reason people become very anxious,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15and often they feel that children are being exposed to something that will
0:48:15 > 0:48:18potentially be quite detrimental to their literacy development.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21Like most other people, I've got a mobile phone,
0:48:21 > 0:48:23but like other people of my age,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25I have a real problem with text language.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27My children are often sending me texts
0:48:27 > 0:48:31that I simply don't understand and, to be quite honest,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34it always annoys me a little bit because it seems very sloppy
0:48:34 > 0:48:37and a bit lazy, and doesn't seem to help their spelling at all.
0:48:37 > 0:48:42But the latest research could actually suggest the complete opposite.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47Professor Clare Wood studied a group of 8 to 12-year-olds
0:48:47 > 0:48:53over an academic year to analyse how mobile phone use, in particular regular texting,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56might affect their educational development.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59She discovered that rather than be detrimental,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03texting on mobile phones can actually help children learn.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06If we analyse how those children are spelling those words,
0:49:06 > 0:49:10actually, the spellings aren't as unconventional as you might think.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15In other words, they don't actually violate any of the rules of English.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18What children are doing is demonstrating to us that
0:49:18 > 0:49:21they understand how language is composed of sounds,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25they understand how those sounds map onto lots of different letter combinations.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Now, that's incredibly creative
0:49:28 > 0:49:31and it's actually a very sophisticated level of language use.
0:49:33 > 0:49:39Clare also believes that dyslexics could particularly benefit from texting on mobile phones.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42I think that that would be a good way in for those children.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46I can see how that would work, that they are much more likely to want
0:49:46 > 0:49:51to copy the types of representation that they see their friends using.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58Another way to help dyslexics is through intensive teaching.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02Because Lettie's dyslexia is affecting her schoolwork so badly,
0:50:02 > 0:50:06her parents are thinking of sending her to a specialist school.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11Before she can be accepted, she has to come for a day of assessment,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13to see if she is suitable.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16Lettie, how are you feeling?
0:50:16 > 0:50:20A bit nervous, but all right.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23Frewen College was one of the first schools to offer
0:50:23 > 0:50:26specialist dyslexia teaching in the UK.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31- Hi, good morning. You must be Lettie.- Yes.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33If Lettie's accepted,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35the school will be able to tailor teaching
0:50:35 > 0:50:40to suit her particular problems with processing speech and written words.
0:50:40 > 0:50:45They can also give her more one-on-one teaching in phonics.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48- Is it in the right place?- No.- No, the whole school is in a muddle.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50'There are children who can cope in mainstream'
0:50:50 > 0:50:53and if they can, it's a good place for them,
0:50:53 > 0:50:57happy confident children who already have the strategies they need,
0:50:57 > 0:51:01and, of course, sometimes we aim to place children in mainstream,
0:51:01 > 0:51:05but there will always be some children - and I think Lettie may be one of them -
0:51:05 > 0:51:08who, because they are very slow processing,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12they will always need more time and more space,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15and more quiet, and more room to learn,
0:51:15 > 0:51:19cos often these are children who have been left out,
0:51:19 > 0:51:22because they were less able, because they were a bit odd,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25because more able children were impatient with them or whatever.
0:51:25 > 0:51:30They are often children who've found they haven't successfully worked
0:51:30 > 0:51:32in a team with other children,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35and that's a very important part of what we do.
0:51:35 > 0:51:40'I spell really simple words wrong cos I'm just trying to write.
0:51:40 > 0:51:46'So, like, I spell "was" how it sounds - W-O-S.'
0:51:46 > 0:51:48And what do you think when you're doing that,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50when you're writing, do you notice?
0:51:50 > 0:51:54I don't notice cos I'm just trying to write the story, really.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56And then when you look at it afterwards?
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Yeah, I know I spelled a lot of mistakes, normally every word,
0:51:59 > 0:52:03and there's a lot of mistakes, and so I just get really nervous and stuff.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06Quite a lot of anxiety about spelling,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09so I was trying to reassure her,
0:52:09 > 0:52:11"You don't have to worry about the spelling."
0:52:11 > 0:52:15We have a lot of lessons where we get the children very used to
0:52:15 > 0:52:17using, for example, the sound chart.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21So we're teaching phonological awareness and skills all the time,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24so that a child who's presented with, you know,
0:52:24 > 0:52:26who is trying to write a word like "porcupine"
0:52:26 > 0:52:29can sound it out so they've got to the point where they go,
0:52:29 > 0:52:31"puh-or-cuh" and so on.
0:52:31 > 0:52:36They can sound it out and then they can access a chart to give them spelling choices.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40Frewen is a fee-paying private school,
0:52:40 > 0:52:42so not available for everyone.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46Lettie's parents now need to decide
0:52:46 > 0:52:49whether they can afford to send her there.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52When dyslexia was discovered 100 years ago,
0:52:52 > 0:52:56it was seen as a defect, as a disability that had to be overcome.
0:52:56 > 0:53:01It was all about the difficulties that dyslexics had with reading and writing,
0:53:01 > 0:53:03and how they could be taught to cope with this.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07But over recent years, it's been seen less as a disability,
0:53:07 > 0:53:11and more as a difference in the way some people process information.
0:53:13 > 0:53:18One popular belief suggests that because dyslexia is so prevalent
0:53:18 > 0:53:21in the population, that it could involve benefits of some kind.
0:53:21 > 0:53:26If the dyslexia genes were all bad, the argument goes,
0:53:26 > 0:53:28evolution would have weeded them out.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32But so far, there has been little scientific research
0:53:32 > 0:53:34to either back this up or refute it.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37One new area of research is investigating why
0:53:37 > 0:53:40there are apparently so many dyslexics in the creative arts.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45Well, actually that statement was kind of the starting point
0:53:45 > 0:53:48for my work, in that there is so much anecdotal evidence
0:53:48 > 0:53:52pointing to the link between dyslexia and visuospatial talent,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56and people often talk about these very high-profile dyslexic artists,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03award-winning designers, Paul Smith and Tommy Hilfiger,
0:54:03 > 0:54:08dyslexic architects, you know, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10And a lot of these people themselves
0:54:10 > 0:54:16actually credit their visuospatial talent in some way to their dyslexia.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21Right, well, thank you very much for volunteering to take part in the study this afternoon.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23Researchers at the University of Middlesex are trying
0:54:23 > 0:54:28to quantify what advantages dyslexia could bring and in what way.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32I just want you to copy the images as you see them on the screen,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36and you'll have a set time for copying each one.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40Dr Nicola Brunswick is currently studying students from
0:54:40 > 0:54:43the Royal College of Art to discover why it reports
0:54:43 > 0:54:46a much higher than average rate of dyslexia.
0:54:46 > 0:54:51Whereas some people might argue these students are trying to avoid the typical language-based subjects,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55you don't get into these institutions, these prestigious art colleges,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57without having a great deal of talent,
0:54:57 > 0:55:02and so this is something that we wanted to explore through our work.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07To perform these tasks, it does require a type of processing called global processing,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10where you can sort of step back and see the bigger picture,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14rather than focussing necessarily on the individual details.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18And it's these particular skills that have been associated with
0:55:18 > 0:55:21things like art, design and architecture,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24in which these high-profile dyslexic readers tend to excel.
0:55:24 > 0:55:29Some people have actually spoken in terms of a pathology of superiority,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32where, if some part of the left side of the brain
0:55:32 > 0:55:35which is normally associated with processing of language,
0:55:35 > 0:55:40if that hasn't developed as it would be expected in a dyslexic reader,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44then perhaps the suggestion is that some parts in the right side of the brain,
0:55:44 > 0:55:50the right hemisphere, might develop over and above the level you'd expect them to,
0:55:50 > 0:55:52to in some way compensate for that.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56You have one minute left.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59Nicola's research is also beginning to uncover
0:55:59 > 0:56:05how some of the compensatory strategies that dyslexics often use might work.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09So it may be that those who do have visuospatial abilities anyway
0:56:09 > 0:56:13are then relying more on those, and using visuospatial processing skills
0:56:13 > 0:56:15to try and help them to deal with problems.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18Rather than thinking through problems in words,
0:56:18 > 0:56:20they think through them in pictures.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22OK, that's the end of that task. Thank you.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26I wonder if there are any particular characteristics that you've noticed
0:56:26 > 0:56:28that might help teachers or might help parents
0:56:28 > 0:56:32when they are thinking about the difficulties their children are having.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35I think there's a lot that can be taken from this.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37I think it's important that,
0:56:37 > 0:56:41rather than just trying to teach children just verbally,
0:56:41 > 0:56:44and just keep focussing on the language,
0:56:44 > 0:56:48to bring in the multi-sensory teaching, to make it more visual,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52and make it more tactile, and just to make it more real for the children,
0:56:52 > 0:56:56to try and reinforce their learning of reading
0:56:56 > 0:56:59and their learning in school,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03by using the different senses to try and support the language problems that they're having.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05So we need to play to their strengths?
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Absolutely. Definitely play to their strengths.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11Dyslexia is one of the most common problems for growing children.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16As many as one in ten are now thought to be affected by it in some way.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20Lettie has now been accepted by Frewen College
0:57:20 > 0:57:23and is hoping to join later this school year.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26I just try and do my best and get really nervous.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29- And it probably is something you take very seriously...- Yeah.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32- ..because you want to do it well. - Yeah, I want to do it well.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35Alyce is making good progress on her childcare course
0:57:35 > 0:57:38and is now thinking of going on to university.
0:57:38 > 0:57:40You can do it, even with dyslexia,
0:57:40 > 0:57:44and there's a lot of support within settings to help you get along.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47Reading and writing are such fundamental skills
0:57:47 > 0:57:51that anything that hinders their progress is a real worry for parents.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55But we're now beginning to better understand the way the brain works
0:57:55 > 0:57:57when it processes language,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01and what causes children like Lettie and Alyce to struggle,
0:58:01 > 0:58:05and so can come up with new ways to tackle their problems.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09We are also starting to discover that dyslexia can actually
0:58:09 > 0:58:12have some benefits as well and, rather than being a disability,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16it's just a different way of seeing and understanding the world.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22To learn more about dyslexia,
0:58:22 > 0:58:24and to separate fact from fiction,
0:58:24 > 0:58:27go to the website and follow
0:58:27 > 0:58:30the links to the Open University.
0:58:30 > 0:58:32# The teacher thinks that I sound funny
0:58:32 > 0:58:34# But she likes the way you sing
0:58:34 > 0:58:37# Tonight I'll dream while I'm in bed
0:58:37 > 0:58:39# When silly thoughts go through my head
0:58:39 > 0:58:42# About the bugs and alphabet
0:58:42 > 0:58:44# When I wake tomorrow I'll bet
0:58:44 > 0:58:47# That you and I will walk together again
0:58:49 > 0:58:53# I can tell that we are gonna be friends
0:58:53 > 0:58:58# Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends. #